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Records of a Family of Engineers-Part22_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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into a Lewis bat inserted into it, when it was gently lowered

into the water and grounded on the site of the building,



amidst the cheering acclamations of about sixty persons.

[Sunday, 10th July]



At eleven o'clock the foundation-stone was laid to hand.

It was of a square form, containing about twenty cubic feet,



and had the figures, or date, of 1808 simply cut upon it with

a chisel. A derrick, or spar of timber, having been erected



at the edge of the hole and guyed with ropes, the stone was

then hooked to the tackle and lowered into its place, when the



writer, attended by his assistants - Mr. Peter Logan, Mr.

Francis Watt, and Mr. James Wilson, - applied the square, the



level, and the mallet, and pronounced the following

benediction: `May the great Architect of the Universe complete



and bless this building,' on which three hearty cheers were

given, and success to the future operations was drunk with the



greatest enthusiasm.

[Tuesday, 26th July]



The wind being at S.E. this evening, we had a pretty

heavy swell of sea upon the rock, and some difficulty attended



our getting off in safety, as the boats got aground in the

creek and were in danger of being upset. Upon extinguishing



the torchlights, about twelve in number, the darkness of the

night seemed quite horrible; the water being also much charged



with the phosphorescent appearance which is familiar to every

one on shipboard, the waves, as they dashed upon the rock,



were in some degree like so much liquid flame. The scene,

upon the whole, was truly awful!



[Wednesday, 27th July]

In leaving the rock this evening everything, after the



torches were extinguished, had the same dismal appearance as

last night, but so perfectly acquainted were the landing-



master and his crew with the position of things at the rock,

that comparatively little inconveniency was experienced on



these occasions when the weather was moderate; such is the

effect of habit, even in the most unpleasant situations. If,



for example, it had been proposed to a person accustomed to a

city life, at once to take up his quarters off a sunken reef



and land upon it in boats at all hours of the night, the

proposition must have appeared quite impracticable and



extravagant; but this practice coming progressively upon the

artificers, it was ultimately undertaken with the greatest



alacrity. Notwithstanding this, however, it must be

acknowledged that it was not till after much labour and peril,



and many an anxious hour, that the writer is enabled to state

that the site of the Bell Rock Lighthouse is fully prepared



for the first entire course of the building.

[Friday, 12th Aug.]



The artificers landed this morning at half-past ten, and

after an hour and a half's work eight stones were laid, which



completed the first entire course of the building, consisting

of 123 blocks, the last of which was laid with three hearty



cheers.

[Saturday, 10th Sept.]



Landed at nine a.m., and by a quarter-past twelve noon

twenty-three stones had been laid. The works being now



somewhat elevated by the lower courses, we got quit of the

very serious inconvenience of pumping water to clear the



foundation-pit. This gave much facility to the operations,

and was noticed with expressions of as much happiness by the



artificers as the seamen had shown when relieved of the

continual trouble of carrying the smith's bellows off the rock



prior to the erection of the beacon.

[Wednesday, 21st Sept.]



Mr. Thomas Macurich, mate of the SMEATON, and James

Scott, one of the crew, a young man about eighteen years of



age, immediately went into their boat to make fast a hawser to

the ring in the top of the floating buoy of the moorings, and



were forthwith to proceed to land their cargo, so much wanted,

at the rock. The tides at this period were very strong, and



the mooring-chain, when sweeping the ground, had caught hold

of a rock or piece of wreck by which the chain was so



shortened that when the tide flowed the buoy got almost under

water, and little more than the ring appeared at the surface.



When Macurich and Scott were in the act of making the hawser

fast to the ring, the chain got suddenly disentangled at the



bottom, and this large buoy, measuring about seven feet in




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